BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil — Around here, they don’t talk about that night a whole lot anymore.

It’s a Saturday in the Mineirão, and a smattering of fans wander into a poorly attended top-flight club match inside the stadium where, nearly two years ago, Germany thrashed Brazil, 7-1, in the World Cup semifinals. That moment — one of the most remarkable games of soccer ever played, given the score, the setting and the subplots — once left mouths hanging open. These days, it is more likely to produce only a shrug.

It is not about humiliation; it is merely indifference. One of the many myths about Brazilian fans is that they love soccer. The reality is that they love winning, and they revere winning beautifully. But as their national team drifts relentlessly away from its glorious past, they have rarely been further from both of those things.

“The sport being bad here isn’t anything new,” said Tostão, a member of the country’s 1970 World Cup championship team. A physician, Tostão made his own diagnosis. “This isn’t a sudden sickness, and that 7-1 semifinal wasn’t just a sudden problem,” he said. “The standard has been falling for 40 years, getting progressively worse, with no medicine to quickly cure it.”

Portugal’s victory over France in the Euro 2016 final on Sunday produced some vindication for criticism of its style of play, a nice shiny trophy and one more important prize: a place in next summer’s Confederations Cup in Russia.

The Confederations Cup is not a highly regarded championship, but it is an important dry run for the following year’s World Cup, for organizers but also for the teams who qualify. Entry allows them to have a test run of some of the World Cup venues, training sites and hotels, and to familiarize themselves with the experience a year ahead of the World Cup.

The eight-team field is nearly set:

Russia, host

Germany, defending World Cup champion

Australia, Asian Cup champion

Chile, Copa América champion

Mexico, Concacaf playoff champion

New Zealand, Oceania Football Confederation Nations Cup champion

Portugal, UEFA champion

The last place in the field will be filled by the winner of the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon. The Cup of Nations kicks off in January; the winner will be crowned February 5.

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo during the final of the European Championships in St. Denis, France, on Sunday. Ronaldo left the match against France with a knee injury in the 24th minute.Credit
Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

ST.-DENIS, France — Cristiano Ronaldo was crying, his chest heaving, his knee throbbing, his heart aching like never before. Ronaldo, prone on the turf, sat up slowly and did what he surely never imagined having to do in a game like this: He wrapped his captain’s armband around a teammate as his eyes clouded over. Then he lay back, shimmied onto a stretcher and was carried to the locker room.

That moment, just 24 minutes into the final of the European Championships at the Stade de France, felt critical. One of the biggest stars in the sport going off after less than half an hour? It was the sort of twist that can — that should — define an entire match. And it did.

Portugal, faced with the loss of its leader and its motor and its man who is always in lights, did not wither or wilt or wobble. Instead, the Portuguese dug in, carried the match into extra time and — with Ronaldo hobbling up and down the sideline — stunned France with a goal in the 109th minute, beating the hosts, 1-0, to claim Portugal’s first major soccer trophy.

“We said we would win it for him,” Pepe, the Portuguese defender, said of Ronaldo. Pepe grinned. “And we just managed to win it for him.”

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo was forced out of Sunday’s Euro 2016 final with a knee injury after a tackle early in the first half.

Ronaldo was injured in a challenge by France’s Dimitri Payet at midfield. He fell to the ground clutching his left knee and screaming, but returned after a few moments on the sideline. Several minutes later he dropped to the turf again, seemingly in tears, and Portugal’s trainers again helped him off.

Though he returned yet again, he was clearly laboring and gave in to the inevitable in the 25th minute, signaling for a substitute and sitting down in the grass at the Stade de France.

They danced, they chanted, they even — for some reason — did the Icelandic Thunderclap routine a few times. But mostly the French fans at the Stade Velodrome on Thursday just sang as one, long and loud and proud.

Sometimes it was the national anthem. Sometimes it was the chorus to “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Sometimes it was just “Allez!” (roughly, Let’s Go!) over and over. In truth, it did not matter what they were singing.

On this night, in this moment, the fans wanted simply to join in. To make a difference. To matter. And they did.

Beneath a relentless, rambunctious cacophony, France defeated Germany, 2-0, in a semifinal of the European Championships. The French, who won the last two major tournaments they have hosted, will go for a third against Portugal on Sunday at the Stade de France outside Paris. Germany, the defending World Cup champion, will go home.

Every four years, the European soccer championship overlaps with Wimbledon, which means that European tennis players can expect to be peppered with questions about their national teams, their viewing habits, their favorite players and their predictions.

Garbiñe Muguruza wore a Spain jersey to one news conference and when asked about it she said: “In Spain, if you don’t follow football, you’re dead. You don’t have conversation.”

Shortly after giving his pretournament news conference, Stan Wawrinka was agonizing on Twitter after his Swiss team went to a shootout against Poland in the round of 16. Roger Federer was asked if his second-round opponent, Marcus Willis, had restored “much needed pride into British sport” after England’s loss to Iceland.

Cristiano Ronaldo, high above, scored the first goal in Portugal’s victory over Wales on Wednesday to advance to the final of the European Championships.Credit
Georgi Licovski/European Pressphoto Agency

LYON, France — The ball soared in front of the goal and Cristiano Ronaldo jumped, his body hanging in the air for what felt like one beat, two beats, three beats, four. His chest was pitched. His back was arched. His eyes were forward, locked on the target.

Then, just as a Slinky hops down a staircase — its coils bending in one direction before whipping forward over the threshold — Ronaldo simply unspooled.

The contact was flawless. A sweetly struck free kick or a long, dipping drive has poetry, but there is nothing quite like the way a ball compresses when it rebounds from a man’s skull. Ronaldo snapped his neck, and the ball, as if it had engines attached, whizzed past the goalkeeper and rippled the net. The Wales defenders, beaten, dropped their heads. Ronaldo, gleaming, took off running.

It was a sumptuous goal on a largely bland evening, but it was the opening that was needed. Portugal, led by Ronaldo, its enigmatic captain, secured a place in the final of the European Championships with a 2-0 victory over Wales on Wednesday at the Stade des Lumieres. The Portuguese will face either France or Germany on Sunday at the Stade de France just outside Paris.